Milkweed Meadow: Bumble Bee and Soft Winged Flower Beetles

Location: Elyria Canyon State Park, Mt Washington, Los Angeles, California August 13, 2011 WE keep returning to the Milkweed Meadow to document the progress there, and the Monarch Caterpillars have both vanished. The Bumble Bee is usually there during the time the sun strikes the blooms, but we are still not certain if this is Crotch’s Bumble Bee or the California Bumble Bee.

Which Bumble Bee is it???

We also noticed numerous tiny beetles on the milkweed blossoms.

Bumble Bee and Soft Winged Flower Beetles on Milkweed

Alas, the old model digital camera we are using does not have a macro setting that will allow us to get closer. We would like to identify these beetles. After the fact, we had a terrible thought that they might be the Walnut Twig Beetles that are spreading the 1000 Cankers Diseaseto black walnuts in the western states. This matter will take additional research. Many beetles with wood boring larvae feed on pollen as adults. We should return tomorrow morning and collect a few specimens to take to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Soft Winged Flower Beetles on Milkweed blossoms

These is about the largest closeups that we can make.

Soft Winged Flower Beetles on Milkweed

Soft Winged Flower Beetles on Milkweed

Soft Winged Flower Beetles on Milkweed

Eric Eaton to the Rescue, AgainDaniel: These are pretty easy to subfamily level. They are soft-winged flower beetles in the family Melyridae, subfamily Dasytinae. After that it gets really messy, really fast! Nobody wants to try to ID them even to genus….. Eric